Show of hands: how many of you are willing to admit how much raw cookie dough you’ve consumed thus far in your life?
I’ll start. It’s been A LOT.
Before I was vegan, this was a much more dangerous guilty pleasure (salmonella is nothing to mess with, folks!). But, even vegan raw cookie dough can be dangerous if the flour is not pre-cooked. Luckily, properly-prepared vegan cookie dough tastes just the same without the risk of getting sick! It has been there for me through breakups, final exam weeks, and impromptu Simpsons marathons at my house by myself on Friday nights (okay, you get the picture).
For the past few months, I’ve caught myself enviously looking at the websites of edible cookie dough shops across the country, such as Do in NYC and California Cookie Dough, wishing there were something like that near me.
As I was perusing Instagram one day, I happened to see a post for Knox Dough, and my heart fluttered. “Could it be?!”, I thought. And it was!
Now located in a storefront at 10551 Kingston Pike, Knox Dough got its start as a food truck serving up cookie dough goodness at various spots across the Knoxville area. Owners Steve and Janet Curtis are born-and-raised Knoxvillians, and they love to see the smiles on the faces of their customers as they enjoy cookie dough from their shop.
All of us at Knox Vegan know the importance of enjoying those little moments of life: sometimes the world can get us down, and we lose sight of all the good things that are happening around us amid the not-so-good things we hear in the news. Knox Dough provides one of these good things: a nostalgic treat that can bring a little bit of joy whenever you need it.
The base of their cookie dough is vegan, and their current vegan flavor options include Confetti, Oreo, Lemon Blueberry Cobbler, and Blackberry Lime. However, their list of flavors is always expanding so if you aren’t sure if a topping is vegan, just ask them!
I’ve been a Knoxville resident for about 5 years now, and it still surprises me everyday how many amazing things we have in this great city. At last year’s Scruffy City Vegan Fest, I was proud and humbled by all the wonderful community members doing great work for veganism, environmental justice, social justice, and animal rights. And, there’s new restaurants, like Knox Dough, opening all the time which offer wonderful vegan options.
That’s enough for now—time to go to eat some cookie dough. Who wants to join us?
Photos by Knox Dough and Pam Menegakis on Unsplash
